


Stay the Night

by magicandarchery



Category: Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-04 07:13:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6647659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/magicandarchery/pseuds/magicandarchery
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec doesn't want to go home</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stay the Night

**Author's Note:**

> Set sometime after 1x13 'Morningstar'

They had gone their separate ways what had been hours ago, Alec assumed. At least it felt like he had been walking for hours. Alec’s mind had been racing a thousand miles a minute since he had left the Thai restaurant where he and Magnus had met for dinner. He stopped on the corner and looked up to take in his surroundings, thankful for the glamour that was keeping him invisible to the mundanes passing him by.

He pulled out his phone to check the time. It was nearly midnight. The church to his right looked awfully familiar, and he realized he had likely been walking in circles. He recognized the area, having spent a great deal more time there recently. Alec went to his recent calls, hit the one number that he called so often right now, and looked up at the church as the other end rang.

By the third ring Alec shook his head. This was crazy. It was midnight, and not that Alec was worried about waking anyone up, but who in their right mind called someone in the middle of the night because they didn’t want to go home? _Mundanes probably_ , Alec thought as the ringing on the other end stopped.

“Hey,” he said with an exhale of breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding, when the voice he had needed to hear was on the other end of the line.

“Is everything okay, Alexander?” Magnus asked on the other end.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. I just …” Alec started and looked up at the church again. “I’m still in the area. I um … would it be okay, you know, if I swung by. I know it’s late …”

Before Magnus could answer, Alec turned and started the walk toward the loft.

“I’ll leave the door unlocked,” Magnus answered. “And Alexander? You don’t have to ask if you can swing by, you know.”

The line went dead and Alec looked at the phone before sliding it back into his pocket. Okay, so maybe it was cool to just randomly show up at the home of the guy you were seeing in the middle of the night, but this was still very new to Alec and he had trouble not planning everything out the way he did in so many other aspects of his life.

The walk to Magnus’s building was quick. It was a route that he knew well now, having spent a good deal of time in the area in recent weeks. Alec ducked inside the building and deglamoured in the elevator up to Magnus’s floor.

“Magnus,” he called out as he turned the corner into the open living space of the loft. He shrugged off his coat and draped it over the back of the leather sofa in the center of the room.

Magnus emerged from the balcony outside, a robe over silk pajamas. His hair was soft, not streaked with color, and he had none of his characteristic makeup on. He was breathtakingly beautiful and Alec felt his breath catch in his chest.

“To what do I owe such a pleasant surprise?” Magnus asked as Alec walked toward him.

“I didn’t really want to go home. With everything going on, it’s just … it’s not the same, you know?” Alec said and reached out, pulling Magnus toward him, burying his face in the crook of Magnus’ neck. He needed something to ground him, to keep him from completely unraveling at the seams, someone who wasn’t so emotionally invested in the Institute’s present situation.

Magnus understood without Alec having to say it that Jace’s absence from the Institute had created such a new dynamic for him because Magnus was sure Alec didn’t remember a time when Jace wasn’t around and they weren’t together, and everything was in chaos as they all tried to locate him. His hands ran easily along the length of Alec’s back, fingers smoothing down his spine. He felt Alec relax slightly under his touch.

“It’s like,” Alec started again after several minutes, pulling his head up but not releasing Magnus. “Everyone thinks that I can tell where Jace is because we’re _parabatai_ , but I can’t, not without weakening it even more than I already have. All I can tell is that he’s not hurt, and even then … it’s still weak from before. And no matter how hard any of us tries we can’t track him. So he’s either blocking it or he’s somewhere he can’t be tracked.”

Magnus looked up at Alec and the look on Alec’s face was raw and open and vulnerable and wholly Alec in the way that it seemed to battle with the strong and steady façade of someone that everyone looked to for answers but was equally crumbling under the weight of what had been taken from him.

Magnus snapped his fingers behind Alec and a t-shirt and pajama pants appeared neatly on the edge of Magnus’s bed. “Change. Get comfortable, and we’ll talk.”  he said and brushed a light kiss across Alec’s lips.

They parted and Magnus turned to make himself a drink. Alec turned into the bedroom.

“Drink?” Magnus called to him.

“Whatever you’re having,” Alec called back, his voice slightly muffled as he changed into the t-shirt on Magnus’s bed.

Magnus opted for something simple and poured two glasses of wine. When he entered the bedroom he saw Alec stretching out under the blankets. _A welcome surprise, indeed,_ Magnus thought offering a glass to Alec.

It was hours that they stayed up talking, both eventually settling in against the pillows, Alec letting everything out into the open about the situation with Jace, Magnus offering up stories and anecdotes that somehow made Alec laugh and Magnus had been glad for it. There hadn’t been much in the way of things to make anyone laugh in recent weeks. He decided he would make it a priority to find ways to make Alec laugh whenever possible.

Alec’s laughter was cut short by the sound of buzzing and Magnus couldn’t help but roll his eyes. He turned to his back and reached for his phone, shaking his head at the caller ID. Of course it would be Isabelle that would call in the early hours of morning. “Yes,” he answered, doing his best to sound inconvenienced. “Well of course he’s here, my dear,” Magnus continued, sounding amused, and turned his head to look at Alec. “He came by to ask a favor and now he’s asleep. Don’t worry your pretty head, I’ll send him home when he wakes up.”

Magnus set the phone back on his bedside table after Isabelle hung up and turned back to face Alec. “I should go,” Alec said, tucking his hands under the pillow, but making no moves at all to get out of bed.

“Stay the night. Get some real sleep,” Magnus suggested, finger gently playing along Alec’s forearm.

“I want to but I shouldn’t,” Alec nearly sighed. “It’s non-stop, 24/7 trying to find Jace, trying to track down leads.”

“I get it,” Magnus closed his hand gently over Alec’s arm. “And we’ll find him. But it will do nobody any good for you to keep wearing yourself down the way you have been, Alexander.”

Alec’s eyes diverted down to Magnus’s hand on his arm and he slid his hand out from under the pillow, taking Magnus’s hand into his, lacing their fingers together. “Wait, _we’ll_ find him?” Alec asked after a moment.

“I’ve been looking into it where I can, but there’s nothing solid yet. Even so, I can try to track him. Warlock tracking is stronger.”

“Magnus, I – I can’t ask that of you.”

“And why not?” Magnus’s voice was gentle.

“Well, if you were to ask Jace he’d say I needed to stop thinking with my, ahem, stele,” Alec blushed and the amusement on Magnus’s face moved all the way into his eyes.

“That’s terrible advice on Jace’s part,” Magnus chided.

Alec shrugged but managed another small laugh. “But he’s sort of right. I mean – how is it fair to you if I ask you to get involved in everything? I’m not going to take advantage of it just because of all this.”

“My dear Alexander … that is one of the many, many perks of dating a warlock. And a High Warlock at that.”

Alec’s eye roll was playful, as was his grin, as he shifted onto his back. Magnus took advantage of the shift and pulled Alec in, holding him close against him.

**Author's Note:**

> I have so very much appreciated all your comments and kudos so thank you, thank you so much.


End file.
